March 21, 2017
Today I worked with
an eighth-grade teacher on her research project on famous artists. The students
were at the beginning stage of the research and had some background knowledge
of note taking. They were making reference cards of their resources for later
use. My job was to teach a lesson on evaluating information using the CRAAP
Test. I used a Google Slides presentation I had made that had a couple of
videos embedded. The students wrote the words to go with the CRAAP acronym and
then used and recording sheet to investigate mock websites in small groups to
determine why the site was...crap. The students then used the same recording
sheet on a website about the artist that s/he was researching to evaluate its
contents.
I learned a couple of lessons myself from this teaching
experience. First, coming from a very primary background, I tend to teach in 30
minute increments whether I intend to or not! Fortunately, after speaking with
the teacher, this was perfect for these Honors English students. According to
the teacher, they are very high achievers and want to move fast.
Second, I really
needed an assessment tool. I allowed the students to keep the form I provides
so they could use it in the future. While I did walk around to ask and answer
questions, I did not provide a meaningful assessment.
Finally, it was interesting
to see how different the classes were simply from the students in attendance.
The grade level and academic level were the same, but the classes were very
different in personality. One was very chatty and social while the other was
very studious and attentive.
If I had it to do
over again, if time had allowed, I would have spent a day just observing the
dynamics of the classes so I could have differentiated the presentation and
activities.
I don’t think it
was a bad lesson. But, I was able to take away a few nuggets of information for
lessons for middle schoolers in the future.
